Many people inside ABC News are unhappy about its decision to settle a defamation lawsuit with Donald Trump. The news outlet, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company, agreed to donate $15 million to Trump’s future presidential library, as well as apologize for on-air comments made by host George Stephanopoulos.
While many legal experts considered ABC’s case strong, Disney executives worried that their defense was “flawed,” according to The New York Times. The media giant’s legal counsel was reportedly also worried that the company was at a disadvantage because they were facing the lawsuit in Florida, a state where Trump has received dubiously advantageous judicial considerations.
In July, U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, in the Southern District of Florida, denied Disney’s attempts to dismiss the case, writing, “a reasonable jury could conclude Plaintiff was defamed and, as a result, dismissal is inappropriate.” (Emphasis in original.)
Disney reportedly determined that the worst-case scenario would see the case go to the Supreme Court and lead to the overturning of New York Times v. Sullivan. That landmark decision in 1964 upheld First Amendment protections for media outlets by narrowing the scope of what public officials could sue over.
The Wall Street Journal reports that all of those considerations do not change the fact that “many rank and file journalists and producers at ABC News are frustrated by the company’s decision to resolve the suit.” And legal experts like Sonja R. West, a law professor at University of Georgia School of Law, told the Journal that she believed the media outlet had a strong case.
“It’s really surprising and honestly perplexing that ABC decided to settle at this time and for this amount,” she said.
ABC News is just the latest major media outlet to surrender to Trump’s bullying. Billionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, killed his paper’s planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. A very similar thing happened at the Los Angeles Times too. And Bezos, along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, later kissed Trump’s ring, donating big sums to Trump’s inauguration.
Not every newspaper is giving up its freedom of speech without a fight, though.
Trump, somehow sore over winning the election, is suing the Des Moines Register and well-respected pollster Ann Selzer for publishing an inaccurate preelection poll. The Register has responded defiantly. "We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe this lawsuit is without merit,” a spokesperson told CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs.
Trump has promised to pursue further legal attacks against the press, as has his nominee to run the FBI, Kash Patel. During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, Trump addressed his ongoing lawsuits against the media.
“You need a fair press,” Trump said. “I'm doing this not because I want to. I'm doing this because I feel I have an obligation.”
